Lisa and Joe Inzerillo: “What’s in the Air we Breathe?”

Forgive the pun, but we live with a fowl stench. That’s because a mega-chicken farm was built right on top of our home. This new poultry complex isn’t the family farm you may have in your head. It’s more like the Super Walmart of farms.

There are 6 poultry houses in this complex, with 96 fans blowing out of it that we can see from our window, and smell from our porch. The odor makes being outside on our property unbearable.

We live in the heart of farm country, on 66 acres of farmland that has been in Lisa’s family for four generations. I, Lisa, am no stranger to the poultry industry. I grew up around poultry houses and, over the years, I have worked poultry houses. Poultry farmers have been our friends and neighbors, and the people at our church.

In this gorgeous part of the country known for the Chesapeake Bay, wild and scenic rivers, baldcypress swamps, and churches older than our country itself, the landscape used to be dotted with beautiful farms with historic farmhouses, and a couple of poultry houses set back from the road with farm fields surrounding them.

But this is the old model of chicken farming. Right now, there are 95 poultry houses within a three-mile radius of our home, and there are many more slated for construction in this region.

We love the peace and quiet and beauty of rural life, and are dedicated to preserving the quality of rural life for the residents and property owners and farmers of our community. But we must speak out when a basic lack of transparency compromises the air we breathe and forces our neighbors from their homes.